Championship season is about to be underway for the Lions cross country team. On October 22, they have the Lone Star Conference meet.

They started their season off at the Dallas Baptist University Patriot invitational, where Junior Turner Pool lead things off finishing 4th with a time of 25:54 for an 8k. Senior Terra Truitt lead things off on the women’s side finishing 14th for a 5k with a time of 19:09.

The next meet the Lions attended was hosted by Missouri Southern State University. The course has hosted the Division II national cross country meet a few times, so times were going to be fast.

“The men’s team was again lead by Turner Pool who competed well against some great Division II competition,” Head Coach Ross Smithey said.

Pool had another big personal record finishing 27th in a strong field with a time of 25:45. With this meet being a big division II meet, assistant coach Jake Krolick added there will be a lot of big personal records at this meet.

Truitt leads strongly on the women’s side with a twenty-four second personal best on the 6k course with a time of 18:45.

The next race the Lions compete at will be there most competitive meet going to the Chile Pepper Festival in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The meet hosts 5,000 runners.

The men were led once again by Pool with a huge 23 second personal best, dropping his time to 25:22 finishing 41st out of 450 runners.

The women were led by freshman Brandi Stadler who placed 50th out of 494 runners, cutting 37 seconds off her time with a 18:46 5k.

“Heading into the Chile Pepper Festival the teams were coming off of two very strong weeks of training since Missouri Southern. Turner Pool has continued to improve with another PR and will now focus on getting ready for the Lone Star Conference meet,” Smithey said.

The next race for the Lions will be on October 7th. They will travel to Magnolia, Arkansas to compete at the Lois Davis Invitational. Not every runner is competing. The meet will be used as a tuneup for some of our injured athletes so they can get back to competition before conference.

Conference will be hosted by Texas A&M University- Commerce. October 22nd the Lions look forward to facing off against the other teams for a chance to win a conference meet.